'I have seen my death!' cried Röntgen's wife when she saw the first X-ray of her hand about six weeks after he discovered the rays.

1895

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The event

• Discovery of X-rays1895 · Würzburg. On 8 November 1895 Wilhelm Röntgen discovered invisible rays that pass through flesh. An image of his wife's hand amazed the world and within a year the rays were used in medicine. Röntgen received the first Nobel Prize in Physics.

19th century

More amazing facts

• 1895 In 1895 Popov demonstrated a radio receiver in St Petersburg, and the Lumière brothers held the first paid film screening in Paris.
• 1895 · 1896 Audiences did not flee the Lumières' Arrival of a Train; it is most likely an urban legend.
• 1895 · 1901 Röntgen refused to patent his rays and gave his Nobel Prize money, from the first physics prize ever, to his university.
• 1896 There were no gold medals at the first modern Olympics in 1896.
• 1896 Kandinsky took up painting at 30.
• 1896 Five weeks after Ethiopia routed an Italian army at Adwa, the first modern Olympics opened in Athens.

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